Sergio Rubin
03/20/2021 17:10
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 03/20/2021 5:12 PM
In the first months of his administration, Alberto Fernández boasted of his relationship with Pope Francis.
He slipped that he had contacts with the pontiff, without specifying whether they were by phone or by mail.
Well,
these "contacts" have been interrupted
for a few months.
It is no secret that the president's efforts to promote the
legalization of abortion
complicated the relationship, especially for having put him in the middle of the pandemic and the impact of a long quarantine that deteriorated the already very deteriorated social situation.
All in all,
the straw that broke the camel's back
- after all, Jorge Bergoglio knew that sooner or later the abortion issue would break into Congress again (as in 2018) because Alberto Fernández himself had been announcing it since the campaign - It was a transcendent that was launched by the Government after the approval of the project in the Deputies, in November, and its treatment in the Senate, at the end of the year.
It was an
alleged message
that the pontiff had sent to the president.
The version, which ran the Casa Rosada in those frenzied days in December, in which the Executive Power tried to secure the votes and pressured - according to the conviction of the Church - the senators, attributed to Francisco having said that
“yes the project is going to be approved, get it approved once and for all and the page is turned ”
.
Translated: that the Pope considered the dispute over and that the legislators should not regret the opposition of Francis when voting.
"The president crossed a line," they
told
Clarín
in the vicinity of the pontiff.
That phrase could be interpreted as follows, according to the source: that Alberto Fernández has the right to send a project to Congress, regardless of the fact that the Pope dislikes it -and a lot-.
And despite showing
ingratitude
for doing so after asking Francisco for help - and obtaining it - in the case
of the debt renegotiation
with the Monetary Fund.
But quite another - following the reasoning accepted by the source - is that the president
manipulates
the pontiff for the benefit of his purpose.
You don't have to be a great connoisseur of Jorge Bergoglio's personality to know that if he hates something, it's being politically manipulated.
Cristina Kirchner had already exploited to the maximum the support that Francisco gave her due to the fear that her second term would not end and that a crisis would break out.
Not only the "contacts" were interrupted, beyond the formalities of the diplomatic relationship.
Francisco also gave his assent for the Argentine bishops to
criticize the Government
when they consider that there are reasons.
Perhaps that became clear during the trip - surrounded by the utmost discretion - that the president of the Episcopate, Bishop
Oscar Ojea
, made in January to the Vatican and his various meetings with the Pope.
The truth is that on his return, Monsignor Ojea was unusually harsh in the face of the
VIP vaccination
scandal
.
"We are perplexed by the politicization of the vaccine," he affirmed in his weekly reflection uploaded to social networks.
In addition, he warned that in this matter "we must have great delicacy because it is about life and death" and recalled Francis' concepts about priorities in immunization campaigns.
More recently, the Episcopate criticized the repression of the protests in Formosa due to the draconian restrictions that Governor
Gildo Insfrán
imposed in the face of the pandemic.
"The violent repression of citizens who demand their human and social rights cannot be accepted," he said in a statement.
And he asked "to get away from personal or institutional arrogance, typical of other tragic times in our country."
Another issue that worries the Church is the
subjugation of Justice
by the ruling party.
In February, the bishops of the Northwest warned that "democracy is threatened by the lack of respect for the division of the three powers, by the lack of independence of justice."
In April the hundred bishops of the country will hold their first assembly of the year and will have to decide whether to pronounce on the national situation.
Look also
Jey Mammón revealed the close bond he maintains with Pope Francis
The church condemned the repression and "institutional arrogance" in Formosa
